Militant Consumer's Friend v Egg Loans PPI - WON

[N.P]

I don`t understand why anyone would want to discuss an account with a THIRD party.

 

They are nobodies, nothing more than pieces of ****, the sort of stuff you`d scrape off your boot.

 

MC`s friend: Whatever it is, put it in writing. If it warrents a reply, you MAY receive one.

[militantconsumer]

Due to continuing bombardment by phone, text and email, we have sent a complaint letter (about harassment) to Collect Direct.

 

If they do not address the complaint to our satisfaction, does anybody know if you can complain to the FOS in the same way as you would with the original creditor? They are only acting on behalf of Egg, they haven't purchased the debt.

Edited November 7, 2009 by militantconsumer

[N.P]

They FOS will probably take too long to do anything, if they do anything at all.

 

Trading Standards are just as useless. It seems all the powers that be and Judges are now starting to take sides against us all in order to protect the finances of our pathetic country.

 

Just keep up the In Dispute letters and they should eventually give in and pass it back to Egg, who`ll in turn pass it on to some other bunch of nerds.

[Mistermind]

 

Due to continuing bombardment by phone, text and email, we have sent a complaint letter (about harassment) to Collect Direct.

 

FOS adjudicates on the existence of financial disputes, not the mechanics of debt collection.

 

Boundaries defined against the action of debt collectors are imposed by the DCA licensor, namely the OFT. Their annual licensing office in West London can be found by googling. If a complaint is made to the OFT, it would have to pinpoint which OFT guideline was breached. Other forums discuss such matters at length.

[citizenB]

MC, what is the condition of the agreement they sent you ?.. if it lacks prescribed terms or is in anyway illegible you could make a complaint to OFT.

 

There is a draft letter in the link below amend it as is necessary.

 

http://www.consumerforums.com/resources/templates-library/50-complaint-in-respect-of-dca-threat-re-expired-debt/101-complaint-in-respect-of-invalid-cca-agreement

 

They will write saying they are unable to help with individual cases but will log your complaint along with others. When there are sufficient numbers they will investigate.

[militantconsumer]

[militantconsumer]

Collect Direct have responded to our harassment complaint with a letter stating they "confirm that your telephone number has been removed."

 

We have received no further telephone calls.

 

This suggests that it is possible to stop nuisance phone calls from Collect Direct Direct by complaining about harassment.

 

Of course, the letter also threats "further action" if they do not receive "proposals for settlement of the above balance within 5 days from the date of this letter".

 

We shall respond by pointing out that the alleged debt is in dispute due to a complaint about payment protection insurance.

[sunray001]

Hi,

 

I've had the same letter a few times. How many people have had positive outcomes to their complaints?

 

The bottom line is, they just ignore everything you send them.

 

Whats needed is some way to stop them pursuing you, from DCA to DCA, which we all know is not easy.

 

regards

[militantconsumer]

We have just received the following letter from Egg:

 

[militantconsumer]

It's amazing how easily Egg have rolled over on this, and perhaps even more incredible that they dealt with the complaint in such a record time.

 

However, this does raise a few interesting questions:

 

- What was the result of their investigation into our complaint? Do they agree the PPI was mis-sold? They haven't admitted anything but have simply said they will refund premiums and contractual interest. Can we demand to know their findings?

 

- How have the figures been calculated?

 

- Should we also be entitled to 8% interest on these figures as we have been unlawfully deprived of the money?

 

- Can we ask for a cash payment of the third (largest) sum? Surely they do not have the right to offset this?

 

- What about the fact that we were defaulted for larger sums? Perhaps if we had received these refunds sooner, we would have been able to keep up with repayments?

[militantconsumer]

The other thing is the amount being chased by Collect Direct has now been pushed below the £5,000 threshhold and so would probably now allocated to the small claims track if it went to court.

[beachcomber60]

Good result MC & in a record time.

 

Sent my Egg card ppi to the FOS & about to start my egg loan ppi complaint(s)

 

what was your basis of complaints to get such a quick result

 

Beachy

[militantconsumer]

Thanks Beachy.

 

You can see the full background to the case by reading through the thread.

 

Here is the "winning letter" (not a very complicated one!):

 

Dear Sir or Madam

 

Complaint

 

I am writing to complain about “Loan Payment Protection” added to the three above accounts.

 

As you appear to have made these charges without my consent, I look forward to receiving a full refund of all “Loan Payment Protection” amounts together with any contractual interest which you have added to these. As I believe I have been unlawfully deprived of this money, I am also asking for 8% per annum in statutory interest, the amount a court would award.

 

I look forward to hearing from you.

 

 

Yours faithfully

[militantconsumer]

Unless anybody has any bright ideas, I think we will just write back to Egg, raising these points, as I don't think we've got a proper outcome to this complaint yet. If they don't cooperate then I think we should refer this to the Financial Ombudsman to get a final ruling on all these extra unresolved issues.

[218bhp]

Whats wrong with them offsetting the refund? Surely you'd rather be debt free and therefore the quicker it is paid off, the better?

[militantconsumer]

Hi 218bhp

 

It is better have £1,000 in your pocket than £1,000 off a disputed debt. We kind of consider ourselves 'debt free' already in that we have no intention of paying Egg anything!

 

Alternatively, when you have money you can negotiate with creditors. Most will take a full and final settlement if you pay them a percentage of the total amount in one go. That's because they take a commercial decision about the costs of legal action, whether the customer actually has any money, and their chances of winning. They would rather have 50% now than nothing in the future.

 

In our case there is a big question mark over whether the loan agreement is even enforceable. In the case of Wilson v County Trust (which went as far as the House of Lords) the loan was found to be unenforceable AND the customer got to keep the car!

 

Obviously some people would raise some morality issues with this - you borrow, you repay, etc. etc. But if you look at the behaviour of most financial institutions you have to ask who are the real villains.

 

And when Citibank (the owners of Egg) got into financial problems, the taxpayer bailed them out (yes, that's us). Yet they continue to set debt collectors onto their vulnerable ex-customers, many of whom they should never have lent money to in the first place (especially at those nasty interest rates).

 

That's why there is a Consumer Credit Act to protect the CONSUMER - not a Bank Credit Act to protect the BANKS.

[N.P]

Yep, I agree with mc`s comment above.

 

However, I think it is better not to offer them a penny. A friend of mine 4 years ago agreed to full and finals and paid £25,000 to clear debts, or that`s what he thought.

 

The banks had sold on the remaining outstanding balances to other agencies who are now chasing up these remaining balances. He is even on a PayPlan with around £2,000 left to pay. One of the original creditors is Egg, and they themselves have set DCA`s and Solicitors onto him, after 4 years.

 

If you have a dispute then I think it`s best not to give an inch. If you pay you lose, if you dispute and go to court you could win.

 

There is no such thing as morals in this day and age. They are all out to rip you off and trap you into a lifetime of debt.

 

These **** of the earth get away with far too much, simply to protect the government. I mean, who cares about the goverment? They are parrassites too, they are worse than the banks. They take jobs in Parliment so they can rip off the tax payer. Why should they be able to claim expenses? I have to pay to get to work, so why can`t those bums?

 

Like mc states, it`s a Consumer protection act, NOT a numpty, incompetant, parrassitic Bank act.

 

Rant over (for now), I`m going for my tea

 

Ciao for now.

 

 

 

N.P

[HE WHO DARES WINS :-)]

I am just subbing on this. I have a very similar doc sent over in response to my CCA request ( simialr to that right at the beginning of your posting). I am curerntly dealing with Cabot and i have already sent a letter back to them saying that, more or less, it does not fully answer my CCA request etc.

Needless to say they are still chasing for the debt!

I haven't replied to them again as am not sure really what to do next.

This makes for very interesting reading.

[militantconsumer]

Hi HWDW

 

I've tried to put everything I thought of and everything that other people suggested on here, so hopefully this is a useful resource for you.

 

If you start your own thread for your case, or if you already have one going, then post a link to it on here. Then we can go over there and offer some advice, without getting mixed up with my friend's case.

 

Good luck with Cabot.

[militantconsumer]

The Shadow has posted something about this case on another thread. In reponse to Egg's comment that they are not obliged to send tapes to us:

 

Which is a blatant lie, if the phone conversation is recorded on a relevant filing system its counted as data and hence under a Subject Access Request they have to provide the data to you. A complaint to the Information Commissioners Office whilst slow... MUST be made to counteract this practice or if you feel confident enough a court claim issued for non-compliance of the Data Protection Act.

[militantconsumer]

We received the letter below from Collect Direct today.

 

Although they are obviously not going to take us to court I suppose we will have to respond anyway.

 

Of course the amount claimed still includes the payment protection insurance refund. Disappointing (but not surprising) that Egg are instructing a company to send out letters like this on an account where they know they owe us nearly £2,000.

 

Edited November 25, 2009 by militantconsumer

[militantconsumer]

Today we have:

 

1. Sent a letter to Collect Direct thanking them for deciding to stop using psychological harassment, but suggesting that they go speak to Egg about the dispute on this account.

 

2. Sent a letter to Egg saying we are not happy about the resolution of our complaint, making the points detailed in post 110 here:

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/egg/174507-militant-consumers-friend-egg-6.html#post2588460

 

3. Made a complaint to the Information Commissioner about Egg's refusal to supply copies of the telephone conversations we asked for.

 

I will keep you all posted on what we hear back.

[MandM]

subbing

[militantconsumer]

Collect Direct have responded noting our comments about the PPI dispute, but suggesting that we should start paying them £260 per month anyway.

 

They have not asked about our financial situation. The last payment plan was at a level of £50 per month.

 

They say they will trash our credit file (not sure how that will work on an already defaulted account).

 

Just reporting this to keep the story up to date, we're not scared or anything.

[citizenB]

Collect Direct have responded noting our comments about the PPI dispute, but suggesting that we should start paying them £260 per month anyway.

 

They have not asked about our financial situation. The last payment plan was at a level of £50 per month.

 

They say they will trash our credit file (not sure how that will work on an already defaulted account).

 

Just reporting this to keep the story up to date, we're not scared or anything.

 

You could write to Collect Direct and advise them that whilst there is an ongoing and unresolved dispute with Egg then you are not prepared to deal with them.

 

Is there a complaint with the FOS in respect of this ? If so, give Collect Direct the reference number.